Thank you very much.
I'm sorry I was late; I was tied up in the House. Unfortunately, I missed the testimony of the witnesses before you folks, but from the notes I have and from your testimony, it's clear there has been a lot of hard work done to help our farmers and to ensure that if this happens in the future we react and do what we can.
However, I understand from my calculations that the $13 million allocated to the 21 farmers in Quebec works out to roughly $600,000 per farmer, yet in their testimony the AMA-Terre group say that “ÉcoRessources Consultants has proposed the partial budget method, but it has not been selected by governments.” I would like to know what that is.
Also, they say that “governments have adopted a method based on an evaluation of the financial costs of recovery based on a model for the transition from potato production to grain corn production”.
I have a letter here from Mr. Gemme.
With your permission, I will quote part of it. It says:
The amounts we have been offered are not in line with our reality. [...] We have been patient and tolerant, and we have respected the recommendations because we trusted them. Our trust was broken by inaction and a lack of sympathy for our cause.
According to your statement, $600,000 was given to each of these individuals to support them. However, Mr. Gemme's letter and the report on today's meeting suggest that may not have been enough. Would you please comment on that?